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A lot of property managers deploy different point solutions to computerize the different aspect of their operations with a number of different programs. This includes stand-alone space management, lease management, financials and accounting as well as project management. There are also a lot of Excel files floating around for different purposes. While this approach helps in each of the automated area, these islands of automation require a lot of manual steps in import/export of the data from one system to another system. Also, you may end up working long hours in Excel in trying to come up with the reports you need. With each system having its interface and processes, you may end up being dependent on different people who would each be an expert in one of the systems but not necessarily in any of the others.

An integrated system alleviates the above issues and streamlines the processes. However, such an integrated system needs to address the critical areas listed and explained in this blog.

As a property manager/space planner you have perhaps experienced the need and importance of online floor plans for your day-to-day work. This capability has
been available in some Integrated Workplace Management Systems (IWMS). However, there are issues with the traditional process of publishing drawings online
in such systems.

Let’s explain this through a couple of examples. First let’s imagine that we have a rooftop chiller which needs to be maintained on a yearly basis. It will also need an overhaul every 3 years and needs to be replaced in 20 years. For the yearly maintenance a company might want to establish a rigorous maintenance program where all the steps are planned and processes are defined for such maintenance . We call this “procedural” preventive maintenance. In the case of major overhaul and replacement, the company may depend on the expertise of an outside contractor to analyze, propose and complete the task. We refer to this as “non-procedural” preventive maintenance. Below is a more detailed overview of the procedural and non-procedural preventive maintenance.

Axxerion provides processes for managing the above challenges as explained below.
1- Submitting service tickets through standard emails – Axxerion can integrate with the company’s standard email system for creating service tickets. For example, the users can send a standard email to company mailbox such as:
service@company.com (where company.com is your company’s domain)
Axxerion monitors this mailbox and as soon as an email is received, it generates a service ticket and notifies the appropriate people to handle it. The subject of the email becomes the subject of the service ticket and the body of the email is extracted and included as the body of the service ticket.
2- Automatic creation of user accounts – As Axxerion processes the incoming emails, it checks the email address of the sender and if there are no user accounts, it would automatically create one for the user and issues the username and password. ...

Many companies use consultants for a variety of projects and tasks. Consultants may be teams from the larger consulting companies all the way to individuals working as single-person consultants. The consulting work may be done on the premises or off site at the consultants offices or a combination of the two approaches. While consultants play vital roles for many companies, traditionally they do pose their own set of unique issues and challenges for the finance, legal and human resources departments as explained below. Taking advantage of some of the new contract lifecycle management technologies would help alleviate many of these issues.

Many companies still operate without a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) and rely on emails for handling the service requests. When such a company deploys a CMMS, it is usually a big change for the users who need to abandon their email-based service requests and learn how to log on to a new system for submitting their service requests .
Axxerion has an Integrated Workplace Management System (IWMS/CAFM) with extensive Maintenance Management capabilities. One area that I would like to highlight is the flexibility in handling service requests by accommodating different user approaches in submitting service requests and helping them start using the system without a major initial shock in the approach and without a steep learning curve. Below is a summary of these approaches.
Managing email-based service requests – To accommodate users’ interest in continuing to use email to submit their service requests, Axxerion’s CMMS becomes the recipi ...

Companies in the construction, manufacturing and research and development manage their projects using different tools and project management software with the goal of handling the multi-faceted nature of a typical project. A key element of a good project management software system is the management of the tasks, timelines and time reporting (timesheets). Time reporting is important for invoicing the clients appropriately, getting the project employees paid as well as ensuring compliance with the prevailing wage laws.